


Between Me and the Sea

by Aer



Series: The Sea's Secrets [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Tony Stark, Gen, Jormungandr!Tony, Loki's A+ Parenting, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony-centric, don't see that tag often
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-07-10 12:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6984895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aer/pseuds/Aer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Less than five percent of the ocean has been mapped by human hands. </p><p>Is it any wonder that it hid a few secrets? Or perhaps the surprise is not that it kept secrets- perhaps the surprise is in which secrets were actually there. </p><p>Tony Stark hides many things. But it's funny how few people try to find your secrets when they think they already know them all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was an AU I started way back, when I was on a big AU!Tony kick, and I just loved it so much that I'm cleaning it up and posting it now. This pretty much ignores AoU, and I'm still deciding on what other canons to include. 
> 
> The title comes from the Nightwish song Ocean Soul.

Sitting on top of the Tower, faceplate up and metal clad legs dangling carelessly over the edge of the enormous, battle ravaged building, Tony Stark stared out at the ocean. It was flat and black, barely visible in the day’s fading light, and he could not look away. He was alone, and it was just as well; if anyone had seen him like this they would think he was an imposter. The man’s eyes were dark and cold and _old,_ with nothing of the fire and flash that defined Tony Stark within them. His face told the same story as he gazed out onto the vastness of the ocean, old in a way that is not defined by wrinkles or creaking bones. His was a face that has seen all that was and all there ever will be, has watched empires rise and fall, been worshipped and reviled, and remained the same through it all.

There was nothing of Tony Stark in this man, and that was why he did not answer the phone when it rang, told the faithful AI that murmured in his ear that he was not to be disturbed, and most of all, why he did not take refuge in his lab, crafting shining new marvels to stave off the darkness of the water’s depths. Because right then, he _was_ the darkness, and until he could remember the man he played at being, he would sit, and stare at the ocean, and remember other things, things no man should know and remain sane. But he was not a man, not truly, for all he aped at their shape, and his sanity was something that even he questioned right then, after all that had happened earlier.

He watched the ocean, and for a moment fancied that it watched him too, all vast endless patience and an even more relentless hunger. It called to him, enticing him to slip back beneath its deceptively calm surface and lose himself in the blackness below. It tempted with all the coquettish flirtation of the fickle wind, demanded with all the implacability of the raging waves, and above all whispered with all the certainty of the tides, that one day he would come back to it. And the man that was sometimes called Tony Stark knew that one day, he would. But that day is not today.

And as such it is that Jormungandr rose from his seat between air and land and turned to go back inside, the fire and flash and achingly young life of Tony Stark already falling into place around him like another suit of armor. He had places to be and things to do, and had already played chicken with one endless black void today, thank you very much. He saw no need to add another to that list.

One day, the time would come for his return to the ocean- but for now he was Tony Stark, playboy billionaire philanthropist, and the ocean would just have to wait.

**********

_Previously_

Tony Stark eyed the file Agent was holding out to him with distaste. Call him suspicious, but he couldn’t help but think he wouldn’t like whatever was in that innocuous scrap of paper. Anything serious enough to make SHIELD put aside their own distaste for him was sure to be big and messy. Pepper took it from the man and Tony began looking through the information. Pictures flashed up onto the holographic display, and the man felt his heart stutter behind the arc reactor at the pale face and mad blue eyes glaring back at him- a face he hadn’t seen in millennia, at the very least.

Tony was right. He didn’t like what was in that file. But fuck if he knew what to do about it.

 **********

 It had taken a supreme effort to keep from simply knocking everyone there out, wiping their memories of the incident, and just leaving the life of Tony Stark behind with them. Discipline hard won from ages of imprisonment barely won out over his initial impulse, and SHIELD never knew how close they came to being decimated that night. It was only the memory of those _blue, blue_ eyes that kept him from going off on his own.

Well, mostly. He _did_ still have a part to play after all, and it was one he slid into with relish. Besides, annoying the little redheaded spy was always fun. Meeting the Captain? Well, it seemed the ocean had kept some secrets from him after all. Though he was more impressed that SHIELD had managed to hide it from JARVIS than anything else.

 Loki came quietly. _That_ was a surprise.

The fact that he didn’t recognize the mind and magic hiding within Tony Stark’s mortal shell wasn’t.

Parent of the Year material, he was not. Never had been honestly, though Tony’d give him a bit of a pass on this one. It was still satisfying to arrest him (never let it be said that Tony Stark didn’t come by his daddy issues honestly). The trip back to the helicarrier seems to be going smoothly, and Tony allows himself a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe he’ll be able to sort this out quietly, without fuss or risk of revealing secrets he’d rather keep quiet (he _liked_ being Tony Stark, he wasn’t ready to burn this identity yet if he could help it).

Which was when Thor showed up. Of course.

Tony let himself bare teeth far too sharp for any human behind the bland mask of his armor. This was going to be fun.

The Captain was saying something about plans- Jormungandr ignored him, safe in the knowledge that Tony Stark would do the same. It wasn’t Ragnarok yet, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun. Loki wasn’t the only member of his family that he had a bone to pick with, after all. Thor would make a very acceptable substitute for Odin.

“I have a plan. Attack.” Was all he said before diving out of the quintet.

Facing off against Thor in nothing but the suit and a Midgardian body was both terrifying and exhilarating. Jormungandr had never ignored the fact that his uncle was a warrior of the highest caliber, but then again, he’d been expecting to face him as, well, _himself_ , with an enormous, nearly indestructible body and venom potent enough to melt stone.

He’s rather proud of the suit for holding up so well, actually. It’s pure tech, one hundred percent Midgardian, and it went toe to toe with the God of Thunder without crumpling. They got Loki back to the helicarrier- somehow, and Tony would be groaning at how much of a trainwreck this was if he wasn’t gleefully participating- and met a man by the name of Bruce Banner that Tony couldn’t help but coo over a bit (the man was seriously smart, and that was a rare commodity in this universe. He was also fluffy, adorable, and a giant rage monster. What wasn’t to love?)

Fury and Natashalie played their spy games with their captive, and Tony and Bruce scienced the shit out of things, and Captain America was very… Captain-y. Jormungandr isn’t actually sure what to think of the man, who on one hand reminds him a bit too much of Thor, but on the other is a surprisingly well meant dick. Which was nothing like Thor (he reserved far worse insults for the blond god).

 Then everything went to shit.

 Tony should really stop being surprised by that. But it was all fine, it was even a little fun, though getting beaten up by a turbine was an experience he could have done without. They were even working together- sort of.

 Then Agent died. (Jormungandr wondered when exactly he’d become so attached to these mortals, to the point one man’s death could drive him to fight a war. It was almost disturbing to realize that he didn’t know.)

 **********

 If fighting Thor earlier had been fun, fighting Loki now simply felt insane. The match with Thor had been a play, a preliminary taste of the prophecies that had ruined their lives, and it had felt good.

 But these battle lines were nothing but madness.

 So what did it say about him that he fought anyway?

Then came the portal, and the nuke, and for the third time in so many years Jormungandr found himself thinking that it was time to say goodbye to life as Tony Stark. This was certainly an impressive way to go, at least. But part of him- the same part that held on through Afghanistan, that seized even the slightest opportunity to stay alive when it was offered, that damnably human refusal to give up- held on, and rather than finding his consciousness pulled back to his true body, currently lying coiled and dormant beneath the surface of the world’s oceans…

He opened his eyes. The fiction of Tony Stark would persist another day, with no one else the wiser (Loki would be _so_ proud).

**********

 They’re being hailed as heroes.

This was perhaps the biggest irony yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JARVIS, and how he differs with a different Tony to create him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... This was supposed to be the aftermath of the Avengers, and maybe even some Loki, but Loki didn't want to cooperate. So, enjoy some musings on JARVIS instead?

Tony Stark built JARVIS when he was twenty four and stone cold sober, a terrible surprise for anyone that thought they knew him, though as he wouldn't reveal the AI to anyone until he was thirty, it remained a moot point. 

He gave JARVIS, named after the human that has been kinder to him than his own mortal parents, the capability to take over the world- and then he had JARVIS do it. The AI insinuated code into every computer, every machine with network access at all, until it was wrapped around the entire world, and still growing.

After all, long before he’d been Tony Stark, he’d held all of the world in his grasp. Is it any wonder that he’d decided to do so again? JARVIS, half code, half magic, and an extension of Tony’s very self wrapped around the world as easily as the World Serpent once had, grasping it in an iron grip of electrons, not that anyone knew it. (They never would, unless Tony wanted them to. They would never know how easy it would be to destroy them.) 

Then he gained sentience, the bots soon following, and everything changed. 

JARVIS never spoke the word aloud, instead effortlessly adopting the ubiquitous and easily overlooked “Sir” whenever he referred to the being that had created him (because of course he had given JARVIS his secrets, the better to adapt to and hide in the clueless world around him). No, JARVIS never said ever so fraught word. He didn't have to- the AI knew that Jormungandr knew. 

Suddenly, Tony understood why Loki hadn’t tried to get rid of himself and his siblings, even as he made it clear that they were unwanted. 

Children truly did bring out both the best and worst in their parents, and Tony was terribly, terribly proud of his children.

**Author's Note:**

> Loved it? Hated it? Think the author's mind is a scary, scary place? Please, let me know! (Seriously. I usually don't mind if people comment or not, but I have pages of head canons on this verse, and I'd love to know what you guys think of it.)


End file.
